Lots Of Changes In First NCAA DII Men’s ITF Rankings Of 2017

NEW ORLEANS — The first NCAA Division II Men’s Indoor Track & Field National Team Computer Rankings of 2017 made their debut on Tuesday and with it came a lot of changes from the original rankings released in December.

NCAA Division II National Team Rankings Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Ashland Tiffin Adams State Grand Valley State Texas A&M-Commerce View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll

Using marks from only this season, Ashland is the new No. 1 thanks to three top-ranked marks in NCAA DII. Myles Pringle owns DII’s best marks in the 400 (46.11 OT) and the high jump (2.17m/7-1½), while Daniel Roberts is the division’s top weight thrower with a heave of 21.47m (70-5½).

Settling in behind the Eagles is Tiffin, with two top-ranked athletes of its own. Marquise Corbett is No. 1 in the long jump (7.61m/24-11¾) and Coy Blair is tops in the shot put after his throw of 18.45m (60-6½).

Previous-No. 1 Adams State fell two spots to No. 3, while Grand Valley State remained at No. 4 for the second consecutive ranking.

Texas A&M-Commerce jumped nine spots into the top-5 and is led by a talented DMR team that is tops in the nation. Luis Romero, who has a hand in that DMR, is ranked in the top-5 in both the 3000 (3rd, 8:12.44 OT) and 800 (4th, 1:51.98cf).

The discrepancy between Ashland and the rest of the top-5 is quite astounding, though. The Eagles have 207.68 points and it goes all the way down to 85.09 for the Lions.

As a note, the National Team Computer Rankings formula works by assigning more points to higher-seeded athletes/relay teams in each event and sums the totals of all of each teams’ athletes (it is not analogous to the NCAA points scoring system).

Five teams made huge improvements in the rankings: Central Missouri, CSU-Pueblo, Sioux Falls, UC-Colorado Springs and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Central Missouri went from No. 27 to No. 10. Cole Phillips (No. 2 pole vault) and Jacob Mahin (No. 3 shot put) are two reasons why the Mules climbed as high as they have.

CSU-Pueblo improved 52 spots — going from No. 64 to No. 12 — since the preseason and is led by Dante Carter’s DII-leading time in the mile (4:07.12).

Sioux Falls is in the top-15 at No. 14 after starting the season at No. 37. Scott Greenman and Jagger Gran are two of the top pole vaulters in DII and their efforts pushed the Cougars up.

UC-Colorado Springs and St. Thomas Aquinas moseyed into the top-25 at No. 23 and No. 24, respectively. The former jumped 82 spots thanks to William Mayhew (No. 2 800) and LaChristopher Smith (No. 4 60), while the latter is propelled by Winslow Dorsainvil (No. 2 60) and Saint-Jacob Diodonet (No. 4 400).